Archives for February, 2012.

In the third post of our series about how people everywhere can use data and tools to make the world a better place, we shared with you ways in which the consumerization of data helps us to live better.

Software Development Using Kanban The SPK development team engages with customers utilizing agile principals. This typically means incremental sprint deliveries of code as part of a scrum model. At a recent engagement, we employed an interesting variation of this called Kanban.

What’s the big deal about a holiday invented by the greeting card companies? The U.S. Census Bureau reports that a lady named Esther Howland sold the first mass-produced valentine cards in the 1840s. She was definitely on to something. The Greeting Card Association estimates that Americans will send about 150 million cards this year.Today, if you’re in a relationship, you may get in “trouble” if you don’t remember it! Maybe that’s the driver behind the big business that is Valentine’s Day. It’s also the day singles loathe more than any other.So, for all you data geeks, we’re bringing you the data analytics of Valentine’s Day.So break open that heart-shaped chocolate box and gather a little watercooler fodder about the sweetest holiday of the year.

As a systems integrator, I spend my time behind a variety of applications every day. Each of these applications stores its data in some type of database. The most common databases I deal with are typically MySQL, Oracle, DB2, Postgres, and MS SQL Server.

This post is the last in a series that covered what I call “critical components” — processes or physical items that are must-haves for your preventative maintenance program. One of the things that I have often observed when looking at preventative maintenance programs is a lack of consistency. Basically, when performing preventative maintenance (PM), or other maintenance processes [...]

Yesterday at the top of my gmail account was this message: “M.S. in Analytics—www.analytics.northwestern.edu—How do I become a data scientist? Northwestern Engineering.” Now raise your hand if you’ve had a similar experience.

The core activities of configuration management (i.e. changeset management and release management) are essential to control the changes made to a system and to administer the release of its different versions. However getting it wrong damages your brand, customer confidence and ultimately your business.